Zimmerman charged with aggravated assault, battery

This image provided by the Seminole County Sheriff`s Office shows former neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman after he was arrested Monday, Nov. 18, 2013, in Apopka, Fla. Authorities said they responded to a disturbance call at a house earlier in the day. (AP Photo/Seminole County Sheriff`s Office)By Mike Schneider
Associated Press

APOPKA, Fla. (AP) — George Zimmerman was charged with assault Monday after his girlfriend called deputies to the home where they were living and claimed he pointed a shotgun at her during an argument, authorities said.

The girlfriend, Samantha Scheibe, called 911 in the early afternoon to say that Zimmerman had smashed a glass table, threatened her with the shotgun and ultimately pushed her out of the house, according to an arrest report. After pushing her out, Zimmerman barricaded the door with furniture and refused to leave, saying that he would talk to police by phone, authorities said.

The arrest was the latest legal problem for Zimmerman since he was acquitted in July of criminal charges in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teen. The case sparked accusations that Zimmerman had racially profiled Martin and led to nationwide debates over the so-called Stand Your Ground defense laws in Florida and other states.

“You point your gun at my fricking face,” Samantha Scheibe is heard telling Zimmerman on a 911 call. “Get out of my house. Do not push me out of my house. Please get out of my house.”

Seconds later, she told the dispatcher, “You kidding me? He pushed me out of my house and locked me out. … He knows how to do this. He knows how to play this game.”

Moments later, Zimmerman called 911 from inside the barricaded house to tell his side of the story.

“I have a girlfriend, who for lack of a better word, has gone crazy on me,” Zimmerman said.

Zimmerman then said he never pulled a gun on his girlfriend, and that it was Scheibe who smashed a table at the home they shared. He also told the dispatcher that Scheibe was pregnant with their child and that she had decided she would raise the child on her own. When Zimmerman started to leave, “she got mad,” he said.

Deputies used a key provided by Scheibe to unlock the door and they were able to push through the barricade of items, Lemma said.

“She was very concerned for her own safety especially having the weapon pointed at her and then being pushed out,” he said.

Lemma says Zimmerman was compliant and unarmed when deputies came to the house.

“The easiest way to describe it is rather passive. Clearly, he’s had the opportunity to encounter situations similar to this in the past,” he said.

Zimmerman was charged with domestic aggravated assault with a weapon, domestic battery and criminal mischief. His first court appearance was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. He will be housed in a single-person cell and guards will check on him hourly, Lemma added.

Scheibe told deputies that the ordeal started with a verbal argument and that she asked Zimmerman to leave the house. Her account in the arrest report says he began packing his belongings, including a shotgun and an assault rifle. She says she began putting his things in the living room and outside the house, and he became upset. At that point, the report says, he took the shotgun out of its case.

Zimmerman told his girlfriend to leave and smashed a pair of her sunglasses as she walked toward the front door, the report says. Scheibe told deputies that he pushed her out of the house when she got close to the door.

Scheibe’s neighbors said it was frightening to learn that Zimmerman had been living nearby.

“Just when you thought you heard the last of George Zimmerman,” said neighbor Catherine Cantrell. She said she had twice seen a man who looked like Zimmerman get out of a truck that’s been in the driveway for nearly a month. “I’m in absolute shock. He was never outside. It’s not like he was out flaunting around,” she said.